Procedure for photo lineups reviewed

Public defender: We need to avoid mistaken identities

When a bad ID by an eyewitness can land an innocent man in prison for almost 14 years, it's time to kick-start change, says Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein.

Trying to remove bias from what he says can be misleading police-lineup procedures, Finkelstein sent a letter last week to Broward law enforcement officials suggesting reforms. This action brings Broward in line with a growing national movement to prevent mistaken witness identification.

"These procedures will impact the human cost of misidentification," he said. "This isn't about pointing the finger at law enforcement. This is about making sure the methodology and the systems we employ are designed so innocent people don't get ensnared in our system."

Bostic is the 208th person nationwide to be cleared of a wrongful conviction by DNA, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal advocacy group. Mistaken identification is the common thread in 75 percent of those cases, the group said.

Most of Finkelstein's proposed changes spring from the work of Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University who has studied the reliability of eyewitness identification for three decades.

One of the greatest fallacies about it is its reliability, Wells said. "It's highly persuasive," he said, "but it's more persuasive than it is reliable."

In Broward County, witnesses look at photo lineups in groups of six, often referred to as a six-pack. A suspect's mug shot is included with mugs of five other people who look similar.

Finkelstein is asking for witnesses to look at mug shots one at a time.

"When they're handed individual pictures, they're concentrating on the picture in front of them and the image that they have in their mind, as opposed to trying to compare and contrast ... and trying to decide who looks most like the person, in their mind," said Broward Assistant Public Defender H. Dohn Williams, who researched the topic with Finkelstein.

Finkelstein is also asking that witnesses be told, before viewing a lineup, that the suspect may not be included.

Otherwise, according to Wells, the expert, witnesses feel pressured to decide on one person and home in on the person who looks most like the perpetrator, rather than relying on true recognition. "I call that a relative judgment," he said. "Because what they're doing is deciding who looks most like the perpetrator relative to the other lineup members."

Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti and Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Bruce Roberts each received the letter and were reviewing it, their spokesmen said Friday.

"If we had concerns about the procedure, we would have changed the procedure," said Elliot Cohen, spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office. "But new ideas and new proposals are always worth looking at, and we'll take it in that spirit."

A year ago, the Broward State Attorney's Office initiated discussions with the Sheriff's Office about modifying its live lineup procedures.

The current live lineup procedure is problematic, he said, because it's an "all-or-nothing" approach where witnesses must identify someone with certainty.

"Not everybody gets as clear a view as we would like them to get," he said. "Maybe they get a partial glimpse or a profile. Well, partial identification is better than none, especially in conjunction with other evidence. Life is not an all-or-nothing proposition."

Sixteen states considered legislation this year to prevent mistaken witness identification. Most recently, North Carolina lawmakers, in the wake of the Duke University lacrosse case, set procedures that law enforcement must follow when conducting a lineup.

Police there had used a flawed photo lineup to indict three players accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a team party in March 2006. They had included only Duke lacrosse players in the lineup they showed the alleged victim. In April, the North Carolina Attorney General's Office dropped all charges against the three players.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at tealanez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4542.

INFORMATIONAL BOX:

Improving identification procedures

Sixteen states considered legislation this year to improve eyewitness identification procedures.

Six states took legislative action on reforms this year: California, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia.

Ten other states saw progress on similar bills: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.